Category Archives: Management

Altium Industry Expert Article: Should I Make, Find, or Download my PCB Symbols?

Check out this article I wrote for Altium’s Industry Expert Series about the options designers have for generating parts for their libraries!

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Arduino Clones Can Be Better Than Shields

  Arduino is certainly the most popular method of getting info electronics, or at least embedded electronics.  My BlueStamp Engineering students seem to gravitate to them when selecting their projects.  But what about after the first few projects have been created … Continue reading

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E14 Op Ed: A uC course for Everyone

Have you ever heard Hardware people swearing up and down that a failure cannot be a problem with the board?  What about hearing that after listening to the software folk extolling the virtues of their code while explaining how that … Continue reading

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E14 News: Time of the Hardware Startup

Has anyone else noticed that there are more and more hardware startups being formed, and becoming successful? I’ve seen a significant change in the focus at many of the events I’ve attended in 2013 and am excited for what is … Continue reading

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E14 Post: Learn The Art Of Giving An Interview

When people think of interviews, they often think of searching for a job.  But for every interview there are two sides of the table.  Giving an interview is one of the best things a young employee can do to learn … Continue reading

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E14 Article: Watching The Business Case for Open Hardware Unfold

Last week I went to the Open Hardware Summit with a skeptical eye to the ability for someone to generate a realistic business model when giving away everything they design.  How can one pay the engineers to design a product … Continue reading

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E14 Op Ed: Coping With Failure: Stack The Deck in Your Favor

I’ve always been interested in topics of failure, motivation, and rewards.  Especially in the context of personal achievement in the design process.  When speaking with a friend over a couple beers which were his reward for doing everything that could … Continue reading

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E14 News Article: Error Budgets Launch Careers!

My latest Element14 article is based directly on my experience as a new engineer at Keithley.  Anyone will tell you how tough an error budget can be to work out, but I was amazed at all of the things it … Continue reading

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E14 News Article on Employment Contracts: A Pre-Flight Safety Checklist for Engineers

I am a firm believer that contracts are a GOOD thing.  Not only is it an opportunity for reasonable people to write down their expectations and assumptions at one time, but memories have a habit of drifting from reality.  Issues … Continue reading

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E14 News Article: Politically Canceled Projects

Have you ever worked on a project that gets canceled for some political or other reason not related to the technical potential? Kind of drives you insane. I just canceled a project of mine for strictly political reasons, and it … Continue reading

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